The other day I saw a gangly, awkward teenage boy walking through Giant carrying an enormous heart-shaped box of chocolates. There were a million stories in that one image — his story, her story, everyone’s story of those first teenage crushes and the agonizing, innocent sweetness of young love.
Merriam Webster says love is “a feeling of strong or constant affection for a person; attraction that includes sexual desire; the strong affection felt by people who have a romantic relationship; a person you love in a romantic way.”
I don’t think that covers it. Love is a beautiful — and sometimes brutal — beast. It’s one of the most mysterious forces I can imagine. Like rocks in a stream, it can completely change the course of our lives. It alters our vision and filters how we process every experience.
I’m not much for the manufactured sappiness that often accompanies Valentine’s Day, but today I’m in awe of the awesome power of love.
Here’s to love, in all its indefinable, all-powerful magnificence. May we all celebrate the sweetness and the hard-won wisdom that it has brought to our lives — and no matter where we are in life, may we always keep the door open (at least just a crack) to allow love to come in and color our existences with its magic.
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